The Bundestag has stripped the parliamentary immunity of AfD MP Maximilian Krah. On Thursday, September 11th, lawmakers unanimously adopted a resolution recommendation from the relevant committee, which will enable police and prosecutors to carry out searches and seizures within the politician’s circle. The Dresden Public Prosecutor General’s Office is currently investigating Krah over allegations of money laundering and bribery linked to his previous role as a Member of the European Parliament.
Krah has strongly rejected the charges, denouncing them as “absurd, fabricated, and purely politically motivated.” He called the lifting of his immunity a “logical consequence of the investigations against me” while describing an announced search of his office as an “attempt at intimidation” against which he vowed to defend himself.
Parallel to the case against Krah, proceedings are underway before the Dresden Higher Regional Court against his former assistant, Jian Guo, who has worked for Krah since 2019. The Federal Prosecutor General has accused him of espionage for China.
According to the investigative journalism of The European Conservative, party colleagues in Brussels had long questioned how the aide obtained his post, given his lack of English or German skills, his aggressive pro-Chinese Communist Party lobbying, and frequent meetings with unidentified Chinese delegations. Last year, the scandals surrounding Krah deepened divisions within the AfD and reshaped its standing in Brussels. Following Guo’s arrest on espionage charges, Krah was summoned to Berlin by party leader Alice Weidel and subsequently excluded from the party’s European election campaign kick-off. Less than a day after the AfD celebrated strong results in the European elections, media sources reported that Krah, despite being the party’s lead candidate for a long time, would not join its Brussels delegation. The 15-member delegation voted to exclude him, with eight in favor, three abstentions, and four opposed.
Before the vote, Krah insisted an exclusion “would not stop me from continuing to work loudly and successfully for this party in the European Parliament.” Afterward, he posted a video on social media declaring that “this approach is wrong” and warned it sent a poor signal to the party’s youth base.
